Policing what you post – even in private

In November last year, at a bonfire party in a south London back garden, some people set up a cardboard model of a block of flats, labelled it Grenfell Tower, placed dark-faced cardboard figures in its windows, and set it on fire. The effigy was filmed on a mobile phone. The video was distributed to members of a few WhatsApp groups. Someone in one of the groups passed it on, and it went viral.

The Crown Prosecution Service, ever determined to keep as close a control as possible over what is said online, threw the book at the host of the party, Paul Bussetti. He was charged with transmitting grossly offensive material over a communications system.

But as it happened, the trial was a farcical anti-climax. It turned out that a bungling CPS had failed to prepare the case properly, or to pass on information that the viral video might have been taken by someone else entirely. The charge was dismissed.

It’s good news that we were spared the spectacle of someone being sent down for something they got up to in their own back garden, regardless of how offensive it was. It could have so easily gone the other way: the magistrate deciding the case was Emma Arbuthnot, who imprisoned the demonstrator who egged Jeremy Corbyn.

Nevertheless, this whole affair remains worrying for anyone interested in preserving the private sphere. The video was vile, and produced by deeply unpleasant people. But it was still a private act. And it would have been far better to ignore it rather than give it so much publicity. Plus it reflects the broader trend for policing online speech.

Bussetti was charged under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003. This criminalises those who send, or cause to be sent, by means of an electronic communications network material that is ‘grossly offensive’. It dates back, as Lord Bingham notes, to the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1935, which made it an offence to send any message by telephone which is ‘grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’.

Section 127 extended this to the entire online world. And it has since become a catch-all crime for almost anything on the internet that the authorities disapprove of and choose to prosecute. After all, what is and isn’t grossly offensive is any magistrate’s guess.

But there is more to the Bussetti case than that. Previous prosecutions, including that of Count Dankula over the ‘Nazi pug’ video, have in general been brought in respect of online material broadcast publicly for anyone to see – if they so choose. What Bussetti did, by contrast, was an entirely private matter. Before someone passed it on, the video of the burning effigy was sent to two closed WhatsApp groups, consisting of no more than 20 people in total.

In other words, we’ve now reached a situation in which you are liable to have your collar felt for things you post to a closed group of friends, and which somehow becomes public. That is a prospect that ought to frighten anyone.

Andrew Tettenborn is a professor of commercial law and a former Cambridge admissions officer.

Amelia Cantor

30th August 2019 at 11:49 am

What do you mean “even in private”? It’s the so-called private realm that should be the most strictly policed of all, because that’s where the mask comes off white racists, sexists, homophobes who might otherwise escape the consequences of their behaviour.

Hate should have no place to hide. And won’t have a place to hide, when the coming BAME / progressive majority locks in on both sides of the Atlantic.

John Reic

30th August 2019 at 2:45 pm

And black and Asian racist they say the words things in private
You’re also confusing the fact that it’s legal to be racist
Oriole can’t be stopped from having racist views in private

By the way if someone , say in Tottenham Nrw that a racist murder took place and no one convicted and kept quiet in evidence that could bring a conviction, like the resident in the abroad water farm, then their racism in quiet would have been illegal

Mike Arthur

30th August 2019 at 7:45 pm

You are Titania McGrath, and I claim my £5.

Hana Jinks

31st August 2019 at 1:34 am

Amelia’s right again. She’s speaking about the kinds of technologies that are being put in place to monitor everything about us.

Tim Really

1st September 2019 at 11:39 am

I am trying to decide if your comment is an oxymoron or not; it is certainly close. Do you think that people with such opinions are likely to change them because there is a law that says they must?

In my opinion if you want to call out people that have such beliefs then you need to know who they are in the first place, and in order to do that you must allow them to express them. I also think it helps, if you are in one of those “minorities”, and I am, to know who your enemies are.

Finally I would ask you to consider the adverse effects of trying to enforce your opinion on others, Just look at how toxic Megan Markle has become since trying to ram her opinions down our throats; she has actually managed to encourage the very opinions that she protests.

Free speech; even hate speech is vital, for without people sharing their opinions, how can they ever be argued, countered and openly discussed.

James Knight

29th August 2019 at 5:30 pm

When did we vote to become a police state? I seemed to have missed it.

People should not be made criminals for posting grossly offensive things whether in public or private.

John Reic

30th August 2019 at 2:46 pm

The he outrage over Stephen Lawrence killing there nit being enough evidence in beyond reasonable doubt so we changed it to guessing the feeling in the accusers mind and deciding they were guilty based on a feeling

jessica christon

29th August 2019 at 3:28 pm

The whole concept of hate crime, or content being a crime because someone else found it “offensive” needs to go in the bin, it’s ridiculous.

No police time should ever be given to it unless it’s to understand the motive of a real crime.

steve moxon

30th August 2019 at 7:30 am

Indeed.
The whole shebang is ripe for an exponential rout of almighty mickey-taking.
The surprise is that there isn’t a queue of folk up for this.
If it doesn’t happen soon, I might have to start the ball rolling miself.

Hana Jinks

29th August 2019 at 11:03 am

We’re entitled to say anything we like at any time, and the more grossly offensive, indecent, obscene and menacing towards the political class the better. Is it any wonder that there is so much violence on the streets of Britain when they’re utilizing the police as nothing other than Gestapo-like thugs? They don’t really do much about actual crime any more because there just isn’t anything in it fot them. In fact, the more crime there is, the police enforcement they’ll need.

Hana Jinks

29th August 2019 at 12:54 pm

*more enforcement

H McLean

29th August 2019 at 2:56 pm

Unironically I must censor myself here because I am reminded of the Australian court case a couple of years ago when it was ruled that a protester who made a habit of carrying a sign with the explicit message calling the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott a c**t was deemed perfectly legal. Mind you, this was Australia. In the UK the poor bloke would probably be sent down for 15 years for such thoughtcrime.

Hana Jinks

31st August 2019 at 1:41 am

It was only legal until he was arrested for it, unfortunately, and he was only exonerated on appeal. It might not be as bad here as England yet, but that’s only because we don’t have as many muslims here weilding the political influence that they can on British society. The influence that they’ve had on hate-speech laws has gotta be a shame.

Vapepal –

H McLean

29th August 2019 at 2:57 pm

Spam advertising.

Jerry Owen

29th August 2019 at 8:22 am

The worry of course is not what you send to your friends .. but one of your friends sending for example a Whatsapp video to another friend that takes exception to its content.
Which means that we now live in a climate of potentially policing ourselves.

Stephen J

29th August 2019 at 8:40 am

It’s what lefties do, just don’t leave your dirty undies in the washing bag for too long, they might get nicked…

… purely as an insurance policy, don’t you know.

Jim Lawrie

29th August 2019 at 11:23 am

In a twist on what you say, some of them falsely ascribe views and facts to their enemies in attempts to incite violence against them. In a case where I was involved, the owner of the site and the Police agreed that although it was wrong, they would let it stand. They did not like what the poster said, but, unable to challenge him, decided such threats were an acceptable way of silencing him.

Such abuse is inevitable under the existing law and practice.

Jerry Owen

29th August 2019 at 3:34 pm

Jim Lawrie
I realized after I pushed the ‘post comment’ key it was sarcasm. I miss not being to be able to edit or delete a post sometimes !

Right Now

29th August 2019 at 2:25 am

The garden arsonists were NOT making fun of the horrific deaths that night.
The Grenfell tragedy was immediately co-opted by the woke crowd: it was about racism, Tory austerity, hostility to immigrants, affordable housing, . . . , and it was the responsibility of society – that’s you and me folks.
Lots of people found that narrative tiresome and the Grenfell bonfire video was really targetting that finger-wagging mentality. It was genuinely subversive – cocking a snook at the liberal consensus.

Jerry Owen

29th August 2019 at 8:20 am

Right Now
The Grenfell tragedy was not my responsibility. Utter nonsense.

Jim Lawrie

29th August 2019 at 10:48 am

Jerry I think Right On was being sarcastic/ironic, as indicated by his moniker.
Do you remember right on men in the 80’s and early 90’s? – referred to by real women as “fucking creeps”.

Jim Lawrie

29th August 2019 at 10:59 am

Sorry Jerry, my last post, awaiting moderation, was mistaken, although I do think RN was not being serious about it being our responsibility.

Jim Lawrie

29th August 2019 at 10:42 am

You do a good job of describing the cynical opportunism of the left.

Hana Jinks

29th August 2019 at 11:53 am

It isn’t difficult when they’re such liars.

I had no right to speak to you in the way l did a few days ago, Jim. I apologise, and won’t do it again.